Culture check

CULTURAL expression does not have to be obscene.

This is the view of Pastor of the Sharon Moravian Church, Reverend Ezra Parris, as he delivered the sermon during the 2016 Crop Over Thanksgiving Service yesterday morning.

Acknowledging that some persons in the Church view culture as it relates to Crop Over and the masquerading aspect thereof to be obscene, and that any association would be a contradiction, he challenged that it is Barbados’ culture which adds to the country’s uniqueness. He cautioned, however, that expressions of culture ought to be vetted.

“We must acknowledge that there are excesses that move us from the realm of culture to the pervasion of culture. Along the way, you can overdo and move beyond that which is rightly cultural, to a place where engaging in that which is even harmful and may be described as evil. As it relates to culture, we have to vet our expressions. And to make sure that they meet the mandate of righteousness.

“Celebrating our culture means we must never hide from righteousness. What we celebrate must not in any way conflict with that which we are called to from God of our Creator.”

The reverend pointed out that there are those who believe that “wukking up” or “doing de dog”, according to Bajan parlance, is deeply rooted in the country’s culture.

“We need to examine what we claim as culture. There is a tendency to brand all sorts of things as a culture. As they say, the good the bad and the ugly.”

“And some shift the attention to the Land Ship, and they say that aspect of our culture goes way back, and that even the Land Ship did the dog and ‘wuk up’. I do not remember the Land Ship doing the dog. I’m not sure that ‘doing the dog’ is our culture. But some are sure that it is.”

Stressing that all people are created in beauty, creativity and free will to chart their own course, Reverend Parris charged that we must all be accountable for the course that we will take.

“As we exercise our creativity, as we chart a course from day to day, there is the possibility that we get it wrong, that we will stray from that which is of God and that which is good. So there is then the need for repentance, to be of a new mind that you find the way of God again; that we may turn again to the right. To each and every culture, there is a call of God for righteousness.”

The pastor said that as beings that are beautifully made, there is no need for affirmation from other countries or adoption of other cultures.

“We do not have to look like someone else to affirm that we are created of God and wonderfully made. That is why I ponder the way in which skin bleaching has taken off in recent times in the Caribbean.”

He cautioned, however, that being insular in one’s thinking, and not being interested in the values being cultivated in others, could be detrimental in the long run.

“We must be concerned about the way in which our community view themselves. The aspects of our culture... we must be concerned about the different emphasis adopted, because it could someday shape our reality or the reality of our children.

“We must be concerned and hope that we are able to arrive at a culture that speaks to our divinity as a people created of God and beautifully made,” he said. (JH)